


Long-Distance Rivals

by Shameless_Fujoshi



Category: Free!
Genre: FOR THE FUTURE, Gen, International Sharkbait, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-27
Updated: 2014-09-27
Packaged: 2018-02-19 00:33:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2367713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shameless_Fujoshi/pseuds/Shameless_Fujoshi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rin is on an adventure in Australia, and Haruka finds himself waiting impatiently next to his phone for the first time ever to hear how it went. A short drabble about long-distance rivals keeping in touch and preparing each other for their next epic race.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Long-Distance Rivals

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a drabble so I thought I'd throw it out there because WE GOT SO LITTLE INTERNATIONAL HARURIN INTERACTION AND IT'S KILLING ME. Un-beta'ed because I just want to get it out right away. Enjoy!

It had been nearly twelve hours since Rin last texted him.

Haruka didn’t usually stay so glued to his phone—he’d never even carried it around until Rin moved back to Australia and started texting him daily—because most Sunday mornings Haruka would turn on his laptop, anticipating the soft jingle that announced he had an incoming video call from Rin. 

Today Rin wouldn’t be calling.

“Haru, staring at your phone isn’t going to make a text from Rin magically appear.” Haruka turns his head from where he’s lying on Makoto’s couch to glare at his best friend. Makoto knows him too well.

In fact Makoto had been the one to help him set up the video chat in the first place. It took a few failed attempts to use it on his own, but by now Haruka knows how to make a simple call to Rin or Rei. Nagisa is usually at Rei’s house anyway, and he sees Makoto once or twice a month, so it’s not like he needs to set up any other contacts.

“Rin will contact you when his flight touches down. He already sent you that one picture this morning.”

Haruka sighs and lays back again, lifting his phone up so he can find the text Rin sent him the evening before:

_Plane just touched down in Queensland. Heading to the hotel. Later._

It was pithy, but it was enough to let Haruka know that Rin at least made it to his destination. He scrolls back up to the text he received nearly twelve hours ago:

_Ready to go! Talk to you later!_

Accompanying the text was a picture of Rin beaming at the camera, wearing a wetsuit with a snorkel and goggles strapped to his forehead. One of his Australian friends must have taken the picture because Rin’s top half fits easily into the frame with the ocean stretching out in the background.

He remembers that ocean.

Sighing louder, Haruka turns on his side to face the couch. Even though Rin often texts him throughout the week, on Sundays they usually catch up, trade new tips and techniques that they’d picked up, and sometimes Haruka just listens as Rin tells him about the adventures he has when he’s not training. Having visited Australia with Rin that one time, he can often follow Rin’s stories and imagine them as if he was reliving the adventures first hand. If they didn’t chat until the following Sunday, Rin’s tales of the Great Barrier Reef probably wouldn’t sound as colorful or exciting.

“He might have gone to the bar with his friends after they got home.” Makoto offers, but that doesn’t raise Haruka’s spirits in the slightest. He understands Rin has his own friends in Australia, but these are people he doesn’t know, people that don’t even speak the same language as him. Although a few of them have interrupted their video calls from time to time, asking Rin to introduce them, it’s not as if Haruka can just call them up and ask them to regale embarrassing stories about Rin.

Haruka wishes he’d paid closer attention in English class.

“Well, you’ll see Rin in a few months. You guys have that qualifying event coming up, right?”

Haruka smiles. “Yeah.” It’s the beginning of December, and while Haruka just put his stove out to warm up the apartment, Rin recently started surfing lessons at Bondi on his days off. Sometimes Haruka wishes he’d followed Rin to Australia, just to count how many times he wiped out before he could stand on the board.

“I’m sure that time will come fast,” Makoto says, and Haruka can hear his friend shuffle over to his bathroom. The faucet turns on and Haruka figures Makoto must be getting ready for bed. It’s not late, but he should probably go.

“I need to catch the train,” he says as he passes the bathroom on his way to the door. Even if Rin spent the day out playing in the ocean, Haruka knows he’ll be hard at work training at the pool in the morning. Rin will be fighting to stand on the starting block in April, and Haruka needs to put in just as much effort to guarantee a spot in the lane next to him.

Makoto comes out of the bathroom with his toothbrush still in his mouth. “Aren’chuu gonn’ spend tha nith?” His words are garbled with all the toothpaste in his mouth, but Haruka understands clearly.

“No.” They’re not high schoolers anymore; it’s not like he can be carefree and spend the night at Makoto’s whenever he wants.  He takes his coat off the hanger in Makoto’s genkan and slips into his shoes. “I have to be at the pool on time every morning if I want to beat Rin in a few months.” He turns to smile once more and offers a short wave of the hand. “Night.”

“’ood nith, ‘aru!” He closes the door behind him and heads for the elevator.

As he’s switching from the metro to the line that will take him to his station, he feels his phone vibrate in his pocket. Moving out of the way of foot traffic, he pulls his phone out and finds a text from Rin.

_Just got back to my place. Check your e-mail!_

Haruka rushes to his platform and waits impatiently for his train that arrives ten minutes later to take him to his stop. Once he gets there, he runs the rest of the way home. He doesn’t even lock his door when he gets inside, hastily tossing his coat on the floor as he makes his way over to his computer. It seems to take forever to boot up, but once it does he opens his e-mail.

Rin’s message is the first one.

_I splurged and bought an underwater camera. Here’s some pictures from my trip earlier today!_

Haruka clicks the icon to download the pictures, and after some searching he finds the folder they loaded to. As he scrolls through the photos, his eyes widen more after each one. This sight isn’t something Rin could describe to him; the Great Barrier Reef is something he wants to see for himself.

No two pictures are alike, and he stops scrolling when he gets to a picture of Rin underwater, his long bangs buoyed above his partially submerged head. He’s swimming over a bright patch of coral and fish and creatures of all colors, hands reaching in the direction of the camera. The cerulean water stretching out around Rin seems to shine from the way the sun is hits the surface.  Even behind the snorkel Haruka can see Rin’s ecstatic grin.

He’s so entranced by the photo that the little jingle announcing an incoming video startles him and he smacks his knee on the underside of the table. After realizing what the noise is, he hovers over the icon to see who’s calling.

Who else? It’s Rin.

“Hey!” Rin’s beaming face pops up on the screen, and Haruka can’t help but return a smile. “Did you get my pictures?”

“Yeah.” Haruka minimizes the video window for a moment to pull up the photos again. “I was just going through them when you interrupted.”

“Isn’t it amazing!?” Haruka nods absently and goes back to a picture featuring a school of bright navy blue fish swimming above a patchwork carpet of organisms seeming to sprout from the coral. “The pictures don’t do it justice though! You have to see it for yourself!”

“I want to go there…”  Haruka doesn’t realize he’s said it aloud until he hears Rin’s bright laugh rumble through the speakers. He covers the camera portion of his laptop with his hand and pulls the video screen back up to see Rin’s laughing face.  Seeing Rin doubled over like that makes his heart ache and he suddenly realizes how much he misses Rin.

“Okay, okay, put your hand down, jeez!” Rin is still snickering when Haruka removes his hand, and he looks away to avoid Rin’s smug grin. “Don’t worry, I’ll take you there someday.”

At this Haruka perks up. “When?”

Rin leans his chin on his hand and shrugs. “The Pan Pacific will be back in Queensland in a few years. Just be sure you make the cut and we’ll go there after the race.” Rin winks at him.

Haruka narrows his eyes. “Isn’t it cold there in August?”

“It’ll be like the weather was when I brought you here, but you’ll fine in a wetsuit. Unless you want to visit me before I go home for the New Year in a few weeks.”

Haruka blinks. “You’re coming home over the New Year?”

“Yeah.” Rin’s smile widens. “I’m going to help my coach look for a place to live in Tokyo.”

“…huh?”

“After this season finishes, my coach is transferring to Japan to help me train.”

Haruka still isn’t sure if he’s processing what Rin said. He thinks Rin just said he’s moving back to Japan to train. “But what about your team?”

“They already have someone to replace him, a guy that’s been apprenticing under him.” Rin sits back in his chair and crosses his arms over his chest. “I got my revenge in Australia, and now I’m coming home to get my revenge on you.”

“M-me?”

“That’s right. Last time we raced freestyle you beat me by 0.02 seconds.” Rin’s eyes glint with the promise of a challenge. “I plan to beat you next time, so get ready, Haru!”

From a place deep inside himself, Haruka feels a heat build with Rin’s provocation. He won’t give that spot up to Rin; he’ll prove that he knows how to move through the water better than anyone. “I could say the same to you. Get ready to lose _again_ , Rin.”

“Like hell!” Haruka can almost feel Rin’s body vibrate through the screen. “I’m ahead of you in time zones, so I’m already ahead of you in training! You better train hard if you wanna beat me! Good night!” Rin’s face seems to shine just before the screen goes black, signaling that Rin ended the call, and Haruka can’t move a muscle yet. He’s still feeling that strange energy that flows between them at times like this when they get competitive. When he can finally move again he shuts down his laptop, but the feeling doesn’t leave his bones.

He wants to race Rin.

He wants to swim with Rin.

He wants to see Rin.

The promise of Rin’s impending return satisfies all three of those things so when he finally moves his table to the side to lay out his futon, he slips into bed with new resolve to strategize the next morning with his coach on how to defend his position against Rin. Before setting his alarm on his phone, he sends one last text that night to his coach so he’s ready to start the day out at high speeds.


End file.
